India could extend voting rights to its citizens living abroad
Indian citizens living overseas, including the 2.8 million who live in the UAE, might soon be able to vote in state and parliamentary elections in India, subject to parliamentary approval for a proposed change in rules.
On Wednesday, prime minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet cleared a proposal that will permit non-resident Indians (NRIs) to appoint proxies back home, who can then cast votes on their behalf.
About 16 million Indians of voting age live outside their country.
At the moment, the sole option available to NRIs for participating in electoral democracy involves flying back home to vote. Even this was enabled for the first time during the 2014 parliamentary election that shot Mr Modi to power. About 12,000 NRIs travelled to India to vote in that election.
Until today, the only Indians who were allowed to vote from overseas by proxy were armed service personnel stationed abroad.
The rules for service personnel and NRIs vary slightly, however. While a soldier installed with UN peacekeeping forces in Africa, for example, can appoint one proxy to represent him in every poll in his constituency back home, an NRI banker in Dubai will have to appoint a proxy afresh for every election in which they wish to participate.
The effort to bring NRIs into India’s voting population began in 2014, in response to petitions filed by two NRIs in the supreme court. At the time, Mr Modi’s government assured the court it would begin to work on the necessary changes to voting regulations.
In 2015, the election commission recommended proxy voting, discarding postal ballots and Internet voting as ripe for fraud or manipulation. But the court had to urge the government – last November and then again last month – to work faster to change the rules.
“This is a petition from 2014,” JS Khehar, India’s chief justice, told the government’s legal counsel in mid-July. “Every year, you keep saying: ‘We will amend it.’ You said this in 2014, 2015 [and] 2016 … This is not the way a government runs.”
Mr Modi’s tenure as prime minister has been notable for the numerous public events staged overseas to whip up support among NRI populations.
In 2014, a crowd of about 20,000 Indians from across America filled Madison Square Gardens in New York City, according a tumultuous reception to Mr Modi, who was making his first state visit to the US.
In January, delivering the keynote speech in Bengaluru at the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, an event for NRIs, organised by India’s ministry of overseas affairs, Mr Modi returned the love.
“The Indian diaspora represents the best of Indian culture, ethos and values,” he said. “For my government and for me personally, engagement with the overseas Indian community has been a priority.”
India’s parliament has to debate and vote on the rule change before it becomes law. This is unlikely to happen during the current monsoon session of parliament, which ends on August 11.
At the moment, non-resident Indians have to fly back home to participate in elections